Kone Declines as Profit Misses Analyst Estimates: Helsinki Mover

Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Kone Oyj, the Finnish elevator
supplier to London’s Shard skyscraper, dropped the most in three
months after profit missed analyst estimates and the company
said the European market for new equipment will fall this year.

Kone declined as much as 4.6 percent, the biggest intraday
drop since Oct. 23, and was down 2.5 percent at 57.45 euros as
of 3:27 p.m. in Helsinki, where the company is based. The volume
traded was more than double the three-month daily average and it
was the third-biggest drop on the benchmark OMX Helsinki 25
Index today.

Fourth-quarter net income declined 27 percent to 180
million euros ($240 million) from a year earlier, the company
said in a statement today. That missed the 193.3 million-euro
average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Kone
forecast that this year’s earnings before interest and taxes
will be 840 million euros to 920 million euros.

“Expectations have got out of hand,” Pekka Spolander, an
analyst at Pohjola Bank Oyj, said by telephone. The consensus
estimate for this year’s operating income “was 940 million
euros, while Kone’s upper range now ends at 920 million euros.”

For new equipment, the market in central and north Europe
will “decline slightly” this year and south Europe will
“further decline from an already weak level,” Kone said in
today’s statement.

“In 2013 we expect the markets to be mixed in a way
similar to 2012,” Chief Executive Officer Matti Alahuhta said
in the statement. “We look forward to 2013 with confidence on
the basis of our high order book, strong positions in Asia, and
our extensive efforts in developing our competitiveness.”